We Leave Together, стр. 24
Rachel left halfway between midnight and morning with a large bucket of water in her hand. Jona followed her down the street, to the edge of the Pens.
The fence between the street and this edge of the cattle pens was twice as tall as a man. The wide wooden slats ran sideways for twenty feet to keep the casual rustlers from banging a few nails loose at the bottom and slipping smaller animals between the gaps.
Rachel halted against the fence. She jammed an ear against the tiny slits in the wood. She placed the bucket of water next to a fence. She looked as best as she could between the slats, but with the lamp light behind her and the darkness before her, and the slats so small, she couldn’t see anything but darkness. She whispered her brother’s name through the fence.
Piles of clothes that stank of pink smoke staggered in an alley near the fence. One of them came over to Jona and begged for coins. Jona didn’t look long at the man. Jona punched him in the throat to shut him up and shoved him off.
The man choked, took three steps, and then fell over.
Jona realized he had just punched someone he knew. He bent over and touched the man’s leg. “Hey, Jaime,” he said, “That you? You get yourself tossed that bad?”
Jaime rolled over onto his back. He coughed. He looked up at Jona with big, spinning eyes and sweat that left a pink trail of dots everywhere it touched.
Jona’s eyebrows bunched up. His lips tightened. “I ought to roll you for this,” said Jona, softly, “At least you left your uniform at home. I can pretend I don’t know you.”
“It’s not what you think,” he said, “I’m investigating. I need some money to go back in and talk to this fellow.”
“Yeah?” Jona dropped a single coin on Jaime’s body. “What’s this fellow’s name?”
“Please, Jona,” he said, “please, I’ll need more than that.”
“His name?”
“Please, Jona…”
“Your head’s all cheese. You’re thinking straight, you wouldn’t lie to me. We all got our sins, but we stay out of the sinners’ dens that go for the demon weed. We keep clean of that Calipari and captain and king’s command. Your head’s so gone you trying to toss me for a coin and I see through you so easy I’m embarrassed for you. Let me explain your situation, Jaime. I am not giving you one more coin to cheese your head with, and I had better see that report you write about your birdy in the morning,” whispered Jona. “You hear me? I better sit with him in the room when you bring in the birdy in the morning. Calipari was looking for you the other day. You’re lucky he didn’t find you here. How you get the coin for this, huh? You can only call in so many favors to the night before they start calling favors from you. You know that, right?”
“What are you doing out here?” said Jaime. He rubbed at his throat, coughed again, “Elishta, but what’d you throat me for?”
“I’m surprised you can feel anything like you are,” whispered Jona. Jona pointed at Rachel.
Rachel hadn’t noticed the king’s men in the shadows. She called out for her brother against the fence.
Jaime managed to find his feet below him like a new foal: all awkward angles and knees. Jaime leaned into the wall. He looked over at the Senta with the bucket of water against a fence.
“I’ve seen her,” said Jaime, “I have seen her.”
Jona punched Jaime’s arm. “Hush up,” he whispered.
Rachel walked around the fence, with her bucket, calling out to her brother. Her voice had reached panic pitch. A couple stragglers dressed like gangers with the same dirty red shirts—just drunk street fighters, not too dangerous—ambling down the street stopped to laugh. They mimicked her cries for her brother in high-pitched voices.
Rachel turned and snapped her fingers. A line of fire shot up to the two men’s faces. They ran off, cackling like drunken crows.
Rachel turned back to the fence. She pounded one of the slats with her palm. She threw the bucket over the top.
The bucket splashed water all over the other side of the fence. The bucket itself landed on something soft.
A human voice moaned.
Rachel leaned against the fence. “Djoss, is that you?” she said.
A man’s voice called out to her by name.
“Djoss, I brought the bucket so you could get over the fence,” she said. She gestured with her hands as if he could see her. “Just put the bucket upside-down and get on top. Then, stand on it and climb over.”
Djoss’ voice reached over the fence. “Rachel, how in Elishta’d you find me here?”
“I saw the shape of things, just now. Djoss, I saw you here, like it’s where you might never leave. Someone came and told me you. How in Elishta’d you end up in there, anyhow?”
“I jumped over.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to know,” he said, laughter in his voice. “Thanks for finding me.”
Rachel frowned at him, but he couldn’t see it. He was still on the other side of the fence. “Why are you laughing?” She crossed her arms. “You’re sleeping in cow shit and you’re laughing about it?”
His fingers appeared at the top of the high fence. His grip slipped, and he fell back into the pen.
He laughed again. He tried to speak to her, and explain himself. She didn’t listen. She told him to go home. She said it like she was angry and sad and begging and commanding all at once. “Go home,” she said. Her arms stayed crossed while she walked away, alone. Djoss still hadn’t made it over the fence.
Jona saw Djoss’ hand on the top of the fence again, pulling hard.
Two night shift king’s men strolled around a corner, and saw the hands and heard